Originally Posted by timmyquest
Having ridden neither i may be way off here, but i have a hard time believing that you can have two entirely different materials that perform the same. The charicteristics of Carbon Fiber is vastly different then that of Titanium.
Again, i havnt ridden either so i couldn't tell you which i think feels better, or there is a very big difference...but to say there is no difference seems a tad absurd.
what people like about titanium bikes is that "magic carpet ride" or springiness. It's really just that Ti bikes tend to be somewhat flexy, and you can design one to have a lot of vertical compliance. With CF because you can control the direction, the density and the amount of the layup you can build a bike that is vertically compliant, and laterally stiff. so with a bike like a Cervelo R3 you can design in what people like about Ti, (vertical compliance) and have a bike that is comfortable to ride, and laterally stiff for efficency.
My point isn't that you can make a CF bike that will ride exactly like a Ti bike. My point is you can make a bike out of CF that is better than a Ti bike in every measurable quality, with the arguable exception of durability. (I know a Ghisallo is the lightest frame out there, but with a huge loss of stiffness). So why mess up a good Ti frame by putting CF in it, and loosing the one advantage Ti still has?
And this is coming from a guy that has owned 2 Merlins, and recently put a new 10 speed group on my Merlin. But being objective, I think CF as a frame material now trumps Ti in every category except durability.